Fabular is a game that mashes sci-fi and fantasy elements together

And it looks like it might just work

When it comes to RPGs, they tend to split between sci-fi adventures and medieval inspired fantasies like Bioware’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age series or Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. Generally one of the two will hold some kind of appeal for a player if both don’t and it’s rare that you see the worlds meet. But smashing these worlds together is exactly what upcoming title Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime does.

Rather than choosing between a sci-fi adventure in space or a medieval fantasy world governed by magic, Fabular brings everything together, letting players experience an action-RPG set in a medieval, folktale-inspired fantasy galaxy far far away. You take up the role of a young knight, the King’s youngest child, who’s on an adventure with his trusty spaceship. Throughout the game you’ll have to prove yourself in battle, upgrade and manage your ship, and make difficult decisions all with the aim of defeating the League of Black Knights who have stolen the sun, shrouded the universe in darkness and spend their days terrorising everyone that lives there.

Fabular brings together the top-down battles and tactical elements of classic RPGs with the procedural generation and text-based events and interactions of modern rougelikes all the while introducing you to a pixel-art world of spaceships, space knights, and castle space stations. It looks absolutely insane but utterly entertaining.

Rather than choose a character class at the beginning of the game, Fabular has a similar system where players must choose a kind of ship. The ships on offer include Knight, Assassin, and Alchemist and your choice will shape the way you battle and your preferred style of play whether that’s to use force, speed, or in-depth tactics.

The game’s map is procedurally generated and players will constantly encounter new and interesting locations and the plan is to include around 15 different environments which will have an effect on battles. You won’t only be battling enemy ships, either, as the game will also feature environmental dangers such as meteor storms, ice storms, and solar flares.

As you’d expect from a game that combines sci-fi and medieval tropes in a pixel art style, Fabular is visually arresting with a soundtrack that has a curious mix of light string instruments and electronic zaps and buzzes.

Fabular is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter and its 3 man development team are hoping to raise £25,000. At time of writing they’ve managed to raise £5093 with 32 days of the campaign remaining. If the game reaches its goal the plan is to make it available on PC, Xbox One and PS4 but with such a small development team and such an ambitious project there are obviously some risks that would come with backing the project, though they estimate that with their current manpower they’ll have the game completed in around a year.

If you’d like to help make Fabular happen and get your hands on a copy, you can pledge £10 for a digital download on the platform of your choice with an expected delivery date of September 2017.